


Sounds, movements, feelings

by Amilia_Farem



Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Family Dynamics, Fluff, Gen, Kinda, Neurodiversity, Self-Indulgent, Stims and Fidgets, Technoblade-centric (Video Blogging RPF), also everyone's age is different, and everyone else is already there, basically SBI come to the SMP before any of the events
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-09
Updated: 2021-02-18
Packaged: 2021-03-13 16:48:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 13,186
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28656741
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amilia_Farem/pseuds/Amilia_Farem
Summary: There is a piglin on the Dream SMP that keeps doing really strange things. Everyone is terrified. Tommy and Wilbur are confused. Phil is amused. Techno just wants to shake his leg in peace.Alternatively: people on the SMP (SBI excluded, they know) learn about stims and fidgets, but that knowledge doesn't come easily.
Relationships: No Romantic Relationship(s)
Comments: 126
Kudos: 894





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hallo! A couple of things before you start reading:
> 
> 1\. This is about Dream SMP characters (slightly altered for this fic, but still), not real people.  
> 2\. As I said in the tags, I changed some ages - you can get them out of context and most of them don't really matter, just a heads up.  
> 3\. I've based all the stims and fidgets on my own and slightly altered them to fit a minecraft piglin, and also added some I thought would fit the character. There's no able*sm here, all the characters get educated eventually and are very accepting. No angst here! If something does seem really bad to you, tell me and I'll do my best to fix it!  
> 4\. Hope you enjoy<3

New people arrived from afar, and everyone was excited to meet them. Niki saw them build and hunt and set up a potato farm in the winter land, their house small but getting larger with every passing hour. She said it looked very nice, but she said that about almost everything she put her eyes on, so Sam, Fundy and Quackity decided to pay the strangers a visit themselves. Tubbo heard them talking about it and invited himself along, grabbing Ranboo by his hand and dragging the weakly protesting half-enderman with him.

There were four of them: an older man, a teenager, a child about Tubbo’s age and… a piglin. It was hard to determine the piglin’s age since nobody knew much about those Nether creatures, but it seemed very strong, lifting the stone that the man mined with practiced ease while the other two struggled to move one together. The blond kid looked over at the piglin and yelled something, getting distracted and dropping the heavy block on the teen’s leg, making him scream in pain and anger. 

The creature heard the noise and, having put the last stone onto the quickly growing house wall, came over to the teenager and threw a stick at the laughing boy near him. The man still with a pickaxe in his hand didn’t pay any mind to the shenanigans of the trio, mining peacefully.

Sam was the first one to approach the strange group.

“Hello, new neighbors! Welcome to the Dream SMP, hope you’ll like it around here. I’m Sam, by the way.”

They all turned to look at the teen, looks of varying levels of friendliness on their faces. The older man got out of the hole he dug and smiled in greeting.

“Hello, mate. The boys and I weren’t sure if anyone else lived nearby, wanted to settle down first before looking around.” He reached out a hand for the creeper to shake. “I’m Phil, and these little guys are my sons: Wilbur, Tommy, and Technoblade.” He pointed at the boys behind his back in order. 

The youngest boy ran in front of Phil, his eyes wide and mouth hanging open.

”Holy shit, you’re a talking creeper!”

Sam laughed at the exclamation when the brown-haired teenager, Wilbur, stepped closer, an indignant expression on his face.

“Tommy, you can’t say that!”

Tommy furrowed his brows and looked over at his brother.

”But you and dad say it all the time!”

”Yeah, it’s because we’re older, and you’re still a child,” Wilbur countered, his hands folded on his chest. 

The piglin who was still standing behind the man sighed long-sufferingly, clearly not hearing that conversation for the first time. Meanwhile everyone else came from behind the snowy hill they were watching the scene from and started moving closer, eager to talk to the newcomers. Tubbo hid behind Sam’s back and whispered loud enough that it could be heard from far away, “What’s that?”

He was pointing at the piglin that was still watching the other two boys fight and flicking his ears from time to time. Technoblade was wearing a small crown on his head and a golden earring which he kept fidgeting with. When Tubbo voiced his question, the piglin turned his head to meet the curious and wondering gazes of four pairs of eyes. 

Phil answered the question for Sam: “Techno here is a piglin. Have you never been to the Nether, son?”

“I haven’t,” the boy answered quietly, not moving his eyes away from Techno.

Sam squatted down slightly. ”Hey there! I’m Sam, and this scaredy-cat is Tubbo. I’ve seen quite a lot of your kind, but never spoken to them.” He paused for a moment. “Can you talk?”

As soon as the creeper asked that question, all hell seemed to break loose. 

”Your crown is really cool, Ranboo has one too! Where’d you get it?”

”Can I touch your tusks?”

”Have you killed people in the Nether? I heard piglins do that.”

Techno opened his mouth and everyone leaned closer to hear the boy answer, but instead of words a series of low, threatening growls escaped the piglin’s throat. The noises scared the teens away and they recoiled, tense and not sure what to do. Techno’s upper lip rose in a snarl and he shook his head from side to side in a jerky motion. He seemed to shake slightly all over, as if getting ready to attack them.

Phil broke the circle of people and got closer to the piglin. The man put a hand on his shoulder and stepped slightly in front of Techno, covering him from terrified guests.

“Oh damn, okay boys, it was nice to meet all of you, but Techno is getting a bit nervous. We’ll finish with our house and visit you in a few days if you tell Wilbur the coordinates. Have a nice day!”

Sam smiled uncertainly and said, “Of course, we wouldn’t want to distract you. Good luck with your building!”

As soon as Phil and the piglin were out of earshot and near the house, Quackity fell on the ground, breathing hard and eyes still wide.

”That was so fucking scary, I thought he’d kill me right there.”

”Guess that answers your question,” Fundy said absentmindedly, still looking in the direction the newcomers left. 

Sam came over to the still arguing brothers, introduced himself and told the older boy the coordinates of their city. Wilbur thanked the creeper and continued trying to prove his point to Tommy, seemingly without any results.

Fundy and Ranboo glanced at each other, confused and still worried because of the piglin’s reaction. 

”What did that man meant by “nervous”?”

# # # # #

Techno was fairly proud of the work he and Phil had done today. Wilbur and Tommy spent most of the time yelling at each other and getting in the piglin’s way, so their minimal efforts didn’t count, no matter what Will tried to prove to him afterward. The teen was sitting on his brand new bed and reading a book he took with him from the last village they stayed in, his leg jerking in sync with the ticking of the clock. It was nice here, in this new place: cool, quiet, large territories to explore – so many possibilities. The piglin stomped his hooves in excitement: he couldn’t wait to go mining and resource-gathering with Phil. Now that they had a semi-permanent house, he and Wilbur could finally get as many dogs as they wanted without worrying about some of them getting attacked on the road. He had so many plans now that they weren't constantly on the move.

The door to his room opened with a quiet creek, and Tommy popped his head inside.

“Hey Techno, dad says dinner’s ready.”

”Okay, I’ll be there in a minute.”

”You always say that and then forget I even came in!” the boy huffed in frustration. “Dad told me to stand here until you get going, or you won’t eat again. It’s all your stupid books, “Ohh, look at me, I’m Technoblade, I’m so smart I can even eat boo- uh-oh, sorry, sorry!”

The boy ducked down, but the pillow Techno threw still hit Tommy in the head and he almost fell but managed to stay on his feet and run away, looking back to see if his brother was following. Techno sighed and put aside his book, leaving the bookmark inside of it. The piglin got up and walked to the kitchen slowly, clenching and unclenching his fist absentmindedly. The whole family was already sitting at the table, eating their first potato harvest. Techno took his place near Wilbur and dug into his food, impatient to return to his room and finish reading an interesting chapter.

“Have you seen how scared those guys looked? What were they afraid of? Techno always gets so adorable when he’s flustered,” Will commented, swallowing a mouthful of his potatoes.

Techno’s ear flickered in irritation. “Lies and slander.”

“I don’t know, that was pretty weird but funny, so it’s okay,” Tommy said with his mouth still full. “That kid that kept hiding behind the talking creeper looked interesting. Real fucking clingy though. Maybe I’ll talk to him when we visit. We will go to visit them, right?”

He looked over at Phil who nodded in affirmation. 

“Sure, I want to get to know them better. We’re now sort of neighbours, maybe they’ll show us around the area. A map of the land also wouldn’t be half bad.”

The man glanced at Techno.

”How are you feeling, mate? All good?”

Techno pushed his empty plate away and nodded. “Yep, all good, thanks. Gonna go finish that chapter now. Goodnight everyone.”

An uneven chorus of “goodnight’s” and “bye’s” sounded behind the man as he returned to his room and picked up the book.

It was nice here. It wouldn’t be too bad if they stayed.


	2. Chapter 2

They waited for three days, but the newcomers didn't show up. Although still cautious at the memory of the first encounter with the piglin, the teens were still too curious for their own good and wanted to go and check on the family themselves multiple times only to be stopped by Sam and Eret. The men explained that it was okay for Phil and his children to settle down first and it was better not to disturb them while they were working on their house but still had to physically grab the boys by the collar when they attempted to sneak out and visit the family themselves. Niki hadn't even talked to the newcomers yet and was very tempted to go with her friends but hesitated, and that moment of hesitation was the one Eret needed to come in and see them all preparing to leave. Fundy didn't talk to the girl for almost an entire day after that but couldn't be angry at her for too long.

So when on the fourth day Tubbo told the fox excitedly that he'd noticed someone moving towards them from the direction of the snow biome, Fundy repeated the message to Niki before going through the community house together and hurrying to greet the guests. 

As soon as the family came into view, it became obvious what they'd been spending their time on during those days of silence: every one of them was wearing a complete set of iron armour with an exception of the youngest one who had a diamond helmet on his head. Tommy also was the only one to not be carrying a weapon on him - Phil and Wilbur had sheathed swords hanging from their belts, and Techno had an iron axe strapped to his back in addition to his sword. 

The adults were nowhere to be seen so Fundy, Tubbo and Niki decided to take matters in their own hands 

”I’m sure we know the land far better than Sam and Eret do,” said Fundy confidently as the group was getting closer to the slowly moving figures. 

”We do, but…” Tubbo looked over in the direction of Eret’s castle, sounding unsure. “Do you think it’s a good idea to go without adults? I wanted them to come with us.”

”Are you still scared, Tubbo? It’s just a piglin, and I’m sure Phil or whatever his name was won’t let his son murder innocent children.”

The boy raised his eyebrows. “Are you completely sure that won’t happen?”

”It’ll be fine, and you can stay here and wait for an adult if you want to,” Niki told Tubbo with a smile.

”Of course I’ll go, but don’t say I didn’t warn you. You haven’t seen Technoblade up close, he was all growly, like this,” the kid tried to imitate the noises that had come out of the piglin’s mouth but only let out a long wheeze and started coughing heavily.

Niki offered Tubbo her flask with water and he started drinking greedily, feeling the scratch in his throat ease up. 

The girl hummed thoughtfully at his words. “I heard that piglin language sounds like a bunch of growls and grunts. Maybe Techno was just trying to say hi to you!”  
Before the boys could react to that assumption, the group saw Wilbur and Tommy wave at them from not that far ahead and speed up slightly, so the group decided to leave that conversation for later. 

The brothers were slightly disheveled, locks of hair sticking from under their helmets, and they took them down as soon as they got near. Most people on the Dream SMP didn’t wear armour most of the time unless going mining or hunting, although each had their own set of it for emergencies. It wasn’t that heavy or restricting, but many felt uncomfortable having it on in public places.

”Hello guys, it’s very nice of you to meet us. We got lost on the way, you don’t really have any signs around here.” The older brother greeted, putting his hand through his hair to fix it and making an even bigger mess of it. “Techno managed to recognise some markings on the tree and get us back on track to the coordinates, but we spent way too long going back and forth.”

”Yeah, speak for yourself, I knew how to get here all along. I was just testing you and you failed, idiot.”

Wilbur reached out to grab Tommy, his mouth agape, but the boy was faster and hid behind Tubbo’s back, sticking out his tongue mockingly. 

”But yeah, you need something to help tell the way. We had this really big tower where we came from, it was huge and you could see it from very far away! Cool, right? We need to build you one too.” Tommy added. “Hey, will you help me make one?”

Tubbo glanced over at the boy behind him. “Are you talking to me?”

”Of course, who else? You’re Tubbo, right? I heard the talking creeper call you that.”

”His name is Sam…” 

At that moment Phil and Techno got close and the older man tried to get his helmet off only to be stopped by the piglin’s hand on his forearm. Phil shook his head with a chuckle, but complied and left all of his armour on. Tubbo glanced at Technoblade nervously: he seemed calm enough, looking around himself curiously and glancing occasionally at his brothers with a look of tired fondness on his face. His hand was lying on his weapon, which was slightly concerning, but understandable since the piglin was in an unfamiliar place with people he hadn’t gotten to know yet. The boy relaxed slightly. Maybe Niki was right and Techno really was just saying something to them and failed because of the language barrier.

Tommy noticed the rest of his family arrive and launched himself at his other brother, clutching his arm and hanging from it like a monkey. The piglin sighed and raised his limb higher so the boy’s feet could no longer touch the ground.

”Techno, Tubbo agreed to help me build a cobblestone tower! You’ll have to come with me and get us materials and stuff.”

The piglin glanced at his brother incredulously, then at the boy in front of him.

”I don’t really remember agreeing to anything…” Tubbo mumbled uncertainly. He really wanted to spend time with the other boy and help him with that tower of his but he wondered if it would be okay with Tommy’s family.

As if on cue, Technoblade shook his brother off of his arm carefully and put his hand back on his sword. But instead of leaving it lying there like he was doing before, the piglin held the sheath with his other hand and pulled the weapon out slowly, the blade glistening dangerously in the sun. The sound of metal scratching against metal sounded loud and clear, but the piglin’s family didn’t pay it any mind. The sword was recently sharpened and obviously hadn’t been used much, and Tubbo swallowed in fear and hid behind Niki on reflex. Techno wasn’t even looking at him, but the boy wondered if he said something wrong. The piglin repeated the motion several more times while listening to Phil and Wilbur discuss the pros and cons of actually having a giant tower on the land with Fundy and Niki, the kid becoming more and more worried each time. Even Fundy started glancing at the weapon in Techno’s palm nervously, moving slightly farther from him than the fox had been standing before. 

Finally, Tubbo couldn’t take it anymore and exclaimed, interrupting Wilbur saying something about a bridge, “Tommy, I’ll help you build that tower, I think it’s a great idea.”

Tommy’s face lit up instantly and he went back from poking Will in the back with a stick to jumping excitedly at the other boy’s side.

”Hell yeah, we’ll build the highest tower on the planet!” 

Tubbo looked over at Technoblade who was still holding an unsheathed sword in his hand. The piglin glanced back at him and Tommy, and for a second the boy could swear the corners of his lips rose up slightly before Techno grunted something short in Phil’s direction. The man nodded calmly, not taking his eyes off of talking Niki, and the piglin turned his back on the group, moving to the forest in the distance. He put the sword back one last time, the sound of it ringing in everyone’s ears even from a distance. All the teens let out a relieved sigh despite themselves, Tommy and Wilbur looking at them strangely before exchanging glances, shrugging and continuing on with their respective conversations.

# # # # #

Techno walked off into the forest and sat down near the river, unsheathing his sword and listening intently to the sound it made, satisfied. They had been mining for almost two days straight, all the armour and weaponry the family had during their travels worn out and close to breaking completely. They’d found just enough diamonds to make Tommy a helmet since the boy always seemed to get his stupid head into all sorts of trouble, and a diamond sword for Phil. The man tried to make Techno take it but the piglin refused.

”I’ll wait till we find enough diamonds to make gear for all of us,” the teen replied to Phil’s attempts. “The iron one makes a better noise anyway.”

And now he couldn’t stop listening to it come out of its sheath for almost the entire time he had it. He had a feeling it was driving his relatives absolutely nuts, but they knew it would pass soon and that the piglin would get cranky without it and so didn’t say anything aside form rare good-natured jabs. Techno appreciated their support and tried to listen to the singing of the sword somewhere away from people, but sometimes he forgot and did it in front of others anyway, like it happened just now. He hoped the natives weren’t too annoyed by it: Tommy seemed to really like that Tubbo boy and Wilbur was having a very animated discussion with a nice girl in a sundress. His brothers needed friends, and Techno hoped his habits wouldn’t get in the way of their new friendships.

Suddenly he stopped shaking his leg and left his sword out, raising his ears and listening carefully. A branch just broke somewhere near him, and the piglin thought it might have been a clumsy creeper or a sleepy spider, until a very tall and wide-eyes half-enderman child teleported right in front of him. None of the creatures expected this to happen and so just waited for some time, both their gazes averted from each others’ faces.

In the end, the half-enderman cracked first.

”I’m sorry, I teleport out of surprise sometimes. Hope I didn’t spook you or anything. Also, sorry it looks like I’m talking to that rock over there right now, I’m not a big fan of eye contact…” 

Techno shook his head and tapped his fingers against his armoured hip. 

”It’s fine. Don’t feel that great about eye contact either, so you can relax.”

The boy’s tail perked up and he said in an incredulous but hesitant tone, “You can talk?”

”Of course, I wasn’t born yesterday. Just sometimes prefer not to.” The piglin replied, his voice monotone and slightly bored.

”My name is Ranboo,” the half-enderman introduced himself and added, “Can I ask you a question?”

Techno shrugged indifferently. “Go ahead.”

”I was watching your family talk with my friends… By accident.” Ranboo began, red splashes of blush appearing on the pale half of his face. “Why did you keep doing that thing with your sword? It just made Tubbo really nervous, and I wasn’t sure if it was your goal or not.”

Techno winced at the boy’s words. He didn’t want that to happen, but there was really nothing he could do now but shrug and try to find something less obvious to busy his hands with next time. 

”I didn’t want that. I just think the noise is nice.”

“The… noise?”

”Yep,” Techno put the sword back yet again, it making a long clean sound he liked so much. “Hear it? I just think it sounds neat.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me, trying to write Techno-centric story:   
> Every other character: Hallo :)  
> Anyway, this story is completely self-indulgent (even put it in the tags, hehe), second to none plot, chapters are connected by the settings, theme and relationships more than any actual events. Just so you know what to expect :D  
> Thank you for the positive response to the first chapter! Hope you continue to enjoy the work<3


	3. Chapter 3

Niki wasn't an overbearing person. She was friendly and tried to include people whenever possible to not let them feel left out, but she knew when to step away. But the problem was, she couldn't even step close to Technoblade, and that frustrated the girl slightly. 

It'd been a week since the family's first visit, and it turned out to be far from the last. Tommy and Tubbo started building the tower, as agreed, having to discuss it with Sam first. After short and very peaceful negotiations the creeper had with Phil, the best place for the construction had been decided, and the work had begun. Niki was there almost every day for the duration of the building: bringing snacks and leftover cobblestone she kept finding in chests around her house, piling up the materials where the boys couldn't reach, and sometimes just sitting near it on a makeshift bench and chatting with the people at work.

During that week she got to know Wilbur and Tommy, and thought it was even safe to say they could be considered friends. The brothers told her and Tubbo about their adventures on the road, the things they got up to while Phil had his back turned, and she spoke about life on the Dream SMP and things she enjoyed doing. Niki described all the plans she had for their homeland: the beautiful houses, the shops, the bakery she was planning on making with Tubbo adding his own thoughts on the structure, the boy caring a lot about the way it was going to work and look. Tommy offered his help with the future projects only to be shut down by Will saying the boy had absolutely no taste and starting another heated argument to the amusement of Tubbo and Niki.

Another thing the girl noticed while spending so much time with the brothers - they both mentioned Technoblade too many times to count. It was never anything that specific or informative, usually references to their times together or the fights with the mobs they'd been in, as well as things the piglin enjoyed or disliked - stuff that only people who cared and lived together for long enough would notice and remember. Whenever some wayward creeper came too close to the group, Wilbur got Tommy behind his back only for the boy to tell his new friends excitedly yet another story about his elder brothers and father fighting off crowds of skeletons and zombies. He did add some dubious details about himself being in the front row in those battles and saving his family from danger that Wilbur, even when concentrated on his enemy, still managed to loudly disprove, but the admiration and pride in the boy's voice were obvious. 

Niki didn't want to pry into the brothers' family life and so she was hesitant to ask for any details about the piglin, instead listening for the details in her friends' stories. Techno hadn't visited the neighbours once after their first meeting and Wilbur said it was because the piglin was "working on his project", on which the teen didn't elaborate, leaving the girl wondering as to what the creature was so busy with. 

At the end of the week she managed to get enough confidence to ask Wilbur how she could approach Technoblade to show her good intentions since she was interested in getting to know him as well. The boy gladly agreed to give advice, although he admitted that it would be quite difficult to befriend Techno as that was a fit no one's ever managed to achieve.

"He may be closed off and quiet," Wilbur admitted, "and it took me a lot of time for me and dad to get as close to him as we are now, but he's actually a great guy. He knows a lot and he's very caring, although he's not that good at showing it outright."

Will sighed, "I know he wants us to hang out with new people, especially Tommy cause he was getting pretty bored and restless with no one his age to talk to. But I think Techno needs friends too, so I wish you luck with your idea."

Wilbur confirmed a fact Niki already suspected but didn't want to assume was true - Techno, as a piglin, was very fascinated by golden items, and the girl had had something she wanted to try making for quite a long time. She couldn't think of a better reason to actually get on with her idea than a possibility of making her new friends' brother smile.

# # # # #

When Niki was working on making a flower bed in front of the now permanent bench near the cobblestone tower and saw Wilbur dragging an indifferent piglin towards her by his sleeve the girl wondered if it actually was a good idea. It wasn’t necessary to pass her gift in person if Techno didn’t want to come and see her, maybe she could’ve just given it to Will for him to do the work. He did say the piglin was busy, and although Wilbur assured her it was perfectly fine and that he would agree to come if Niki asked, she started doubting the importance of this meeting. But there was nothing the girl could change now, so she got up from the ground, dusted off her knees and walked up to the brothers to greet them.

”Hi, Will! Hello, Techno!”

Techno grunted peacefully in acknowledgment and Wilbur smiled in return, “Hey, Niki, I hope you’re having a nice day! Did you start working on the landscape?”

Niki nodded excitedely gesturing at the half-finished flower bed.

”Yep! Starting small, but Eret, Fundy and Ranboo said they’d help me with tree planting and more large-scale builds later on, so I’m pretty optimistic about this. We still need more materials like iron and a whole lot of wood, until we get all of it I’m just going to make everything look prettier.”

”I’m sure it’ll look great! Right, Techno?” Wilbur elbowed his brother in the side to get the piglin’s opinion.

Technoblade who was looking up at the tower near them with disdain and slight wonder glanced at Niki and nodded deeply and confidently in agreement before turning back to glare at the building, The girl giggled at the motion and gestured at her pocket, looking at her friend questioningly. 

"Actually, can you pass me the shovel? I’ll add some more flower beds and you and Techno can talk while I’m doing that.” Wilbur reached for the tool in Niki’s hand and left before the other two could protest in any way. The girl braced herself. Now or never. It was just a gift, if Techno didn’t like it he would just return in, no harm done. The piglin who was now wearing two pieces of diamond armour along with the iron one did make Niki slightly nervous, but she knew appearances were deceiving more often than not. 

”Did Wilbur tell you why I wanted to meet up with you?” she asked as friendly as possible, and Techno nodded, watching the teen curiously and twisting his golden earring. Niki looked at it and commented,

”I really like your earrings.” Techno perked up, his eyes widened slightly, and growled shortly. “And I think I made something that will look nice with them. I hope you like it!”

The girl pulled a small package out of her pocket and passed it over to the piglin. He shook it weakly, listening to the contents of the package jingle inside. Niki chuckled and gestured with her hand encouragingly. 

”You can open it now if you want to.”

Techno didn’t hesitate and opened the package, carefully unfolding the paper. It was slightly bizarre seeing the hands Niki knew could lift giant weights with ease treating a simple paper wrapping with such caution. When the packaging was finally pulled off, Niki saw Technoblade’s eyes start shining brightly, the piglin’s mouth hanging open.

He was holding a completely golden chain with little flowers made out of the same precious metal woven into it. Niki spent a lot of time on those and was really proud of how the jewelry turned out. She thought the reaction of the receiver was positive and actually better than she expected, if the girl was being honest. She saw Techno hesitate for a moment and said, 

”Would you like to put it on?”

The piglin threw the chain over his head and took it back in his hand, still looking at it. Suddenly he started stomping his foot down forcefully, making Niki stumble back in surprise. He looked quite agitated and the girl thought if maybe she wasn’t that good at reading people or at least Techno, when the piglin swallowed, mumbled “Thank you” and walked away into the direction he and Wilbur came from just minutes ago. Niki just stood there, not quite sure how to react, equal parts afraid, confused and happy. She'd been pretty sure Techno could speak their language but being one of the only people on the Dream SMP to have heard him speak it made her feel warm inside. Niki just hoped he wasn’t out to get her now which could be a possibility after the reaction the piglin had because of the girl’s present.

# # # # #

Techno couldn’t stop touching his new chain and kept at least one of his hands on it all the way back to the house. Its shine was mesmerizing to the piglin and the small golden flowers were really nice to the touch. He’d had a necklace similar to this one before, just much more roughly done, that Phil bought for him to fidget with in one of the villages they passed through, but he lost it in battle and couldn’t get a new one for quite a while. Niki didn’t even know him and went out of her way to make this, so there would be no way he’d lose that one.

He passed the enormous potato farm Techno’d been working on for the past week and entered the house, seeing Phil sitting at the table and counting their pretty limited supply of golden apples.

”Phil, look what Niki made for me!”

Techno stood in front of the man, his hands flapping in excitement, the chain shaking on his chest with every movement. Phil looked up and smiled widely after glancing at the jewelry hanging from the teen’s neck.

”Shit, it looks great! She is mad talented. I see you’re very happy with that present.”

The piglin nodded his head jerkily and leaned down, letting Phil take a closer look at the chain.

“Are you planning on giving her anything in return?” the man asked curiously.

”I think I have something in mind.”

And if Niki kept finding stacks of wood and iron blocks in chests of the community house that no one admitted to having put there for the next couple of days, that was no one’s business but Techno’s.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me thinking this chapter is horrible: :(  
> Me remembering this is my emotional support fic so I do not care: :)
> 
> Thank you for reading! You're poggers :D
> 
> (If you're following Blood Magic, I'll do everything in my power to update it tomorrow, school is really kicking my ass right now.....)


	4. Chapter 4

The arrival of the strange family seemed to turn a switch in everyone's head, the final push for the Dream SMP inhabitants to start working on all the building projects they kept putting off before. The houses were being reconstructed and redecorated, Eret's castle finished. Phil managed to bully most people into helping him cover up creeper holes and unleashed his wrath on any poor soul that forgot to do so after the landscape was already fixed. Tommy insisted on adding cobblestone to any build to Fundy's great frustration. He and Wilbur went around the land every evening to replace the ugly blocks with something more acceptable and it was really starting to get on the teens' nerves, but the younger boy was incredibly persistent and got Tubbo to help him out on his quest to make the (поселение) look as horrible as humanly possible.

Alright, Fundy may have over-exaggerated slightly, but the fox was running out of normal blocks and he had his own project to deal with, so mining dark wood every day to stop a small child from ruining builds wasn't a thing he wanted to spend half of his days on. It really wasn't that bad and the teen could admit the kid was often hilarious and really brightened everyone's mood when he wasn't being an annoying little shit, but Fundy had a reputation to uphold.

Techno finally started coming around more often. He never visited alone, most of the time with Phil or because of Tommy dragging him over, but the piglin did seem less reluctant to be there than he had been the first couple of times. The fox was pretty sure Niki's present played a big part in it since the chain was hanging from Techno's neck every time anyone saw him, his hands touching it whenever the boy wasn't moving blocks or holding a tool. The girl told her friends about Technoblade's reaction to her gift, nervous about the impression she made, and Wilbur, after laughing hysterically at his brother, explained that it meant that he was actually very happy and definitely not upset as Niki feared he was. 

"Did he start putting his leg down like that?" Will demonstrated by stomping his foot along with Niki's surprised nodding.

"Well, there you have it. Happy!"

After that he saw Tommy who had been hanging head down from a construction beam fall with a string of curses and rushed to either give him medical assistance or laugh at the boy's bruises, leaving Fundy, Tubbo and Niki even more confused than they had been before. But the girl was relieved to hear the reassurance nevertheless, so when Techno and Phil showed up the day after to help she was not as worried about speaking to the piglin.

Fundy got whiplash the first time he heard Techno actually say words that made sense to him. They were quite trivial too: he asked Ranboo if the teen had any spare glass for windows and three people that were standing around and heard the inquiry stared at them both in surprise. Ranboo noticed the attention and teleported away after a few seconds, leaving the piglin to deal with the bewildered stares.

”What? Do you have spare glass? Ranboo didn’t give me any.”

Tubbo had a lot on him and so passed it over warily.

”Thanks,” Techno answered, monotone, and trotted over to Niki’s half-finished house.

Everyone got used to the piglin talking after a while. He didn’t speak that much so it was still exciting and surprising every time, but Tubbo finally stopped jumping a bit every time Techno opened his mouth after a week of him visiting almost daily.

The movies actually got enough courage to ask him a question that’s been on many people’s minds for a while.

”So, Technoblade… How old are you actually?” he asked one day while the group was sitting on the bench, the piglin once again playing with his chain, fascinated. 

"We're twins!" Wilbur butted in, his voice unnecessarily cheery for such an announcement. Everyone stared at him blankly, and Techno sighed deeply and said, "No, we're not, we're completely different species and not blood related." He then glanced at Tubbo briefly before adding,

"Piglins age differently compared to humans, so developmentally I am a teenager about Wilbur's age."

"I told you we're twins," Will said and patted his brother's head to the latter's visible annoyance.

"I also want a twin!" Tommy shared and grabbed the other boy by the sleeve of his shirt. "Tubbo will be my twin now."

"Nope, not happening," Phil replied his youngest son's statement. "I have too many children as it is, you'll have to stay completely unrelated friends or I will lose my absolute mind."

"Seconded." Techno commented just before Tommy started complaining loudly about his elder brothers having something he didn't.

Sometimes Techno spoke piglin, the deep growly language that literally no one but Phil understood. He usually used it to warn the man about hostile mobs or when he wasn't really in the mood to talk to anyone else. Fundy personally was very impressed by Phil's ability in piglin: most of its sounds were impossible to pronounce due to the limitations of most creatures' anatomy (the fox tried repeating after Techno along with Quackity and Tubbo, he knew what he was talking about), but the man managed to do it well enough that Techno could understand it. When the teen heard Fundy's pathetic attempts he didn't even try to conceal his laughter to the boy's embarrassment. 

But still, Techno didn't speak piglin that frequently, mostly sticking to common or, more often, silence. So when Fundy heard him use it with Phil nowhere to be seen, he was quite puzzled, although not that worried. The boy sometimes mumbled to himself when no one was around, just usually in a language everyone could understand. Wilbur explained that Techno had spent more time in the Overworld than he had in the Nether, so common was his go-to language more often than not.  
But it didn't stop there. In the span of the next five minutes the piglin continued grunting, the sound, as far as the fox could tell, the same each time. The teen himself seemed calm enough, mining cobble and the ores that sometimes appeared among it, but the noise he kept on making was unnerving. Quackity, who was digging a tunnel right next to Fundy's, popped out of it and crouched right next to the boy.

"What the fuck is he doing? Do you know what he's saying?" He whispered, alarmed. Quackity had never really gotten over his first meeting with the piglin, preferring to keep his distance. 

”Why do you think I understand him? I’m not an expert.” Fundy replied defensively, pushing the other boy away. “I’m sure it’s fine, now go away. And why are you mining with your shirt off?”

”It’s more comfortable this way. It’s really hot in here.” Quackity grabbed one of the fox’s spare pickaxes that were lying on the ground and moved back to his tunnel before the teen could protest. “Thanks for the pickaxe, mine was almost broken.”

Fundy looked at the tunnel’s entrance and decided it really wasn’t worth it. All the ores were going in the shared chest anyway, so it wasn’t like he was losing anything. The teen heard Techno grunt again and twitched in surprise. He really needed to get it together.

After another two hours of the piglin words repeating, Fundy was starting to lose it. The sound wasn’t annoying or even that loud – just a growl that echoed off of the walls, the same one, over and over again, no one having any idea what it meant. Quackity tried to bolt after the first half an hour but the other boy stopped him, not sure if he wanted to stay here alone with Techno. Every time the teen was going to ask what exactly the phrase meant, it repeated, and all of Fundy’s courage disappeared instantly. Niki, Tubbo and Ranboo popped in one time to grab some cobble and coal only for the fox to drag them all to his tunnel and sit them down to listen. They stayed there for 10 minutes just theorizing, not sure if it would be appropriate to ask about it and just a slight bit afraid. Technoblade came in during that time to ask for another pickaxe and looked at the crowd of people strangely.

”I see you’re having a party here. I’ll just… come back later, I still have one on me,” he said before backing away cautiously.

When that final pickaxe finally broke with a loud noise Techno climbed up the stairs and exited the mines, his idle neighbours sighing collectively in relief. Almost immediately after the piglin left Phil came in to help him take the rest of the resources like he usually did, and jumped up when a crowd of wide-eyes kids surrounded him with countless questions in their eyes.

”Phil, please. Please tell us that you know what Techno’s been saying this entire time.” Fundy pleaded and gestured at Quackity, whose legs were shaking slightly. “Quackity’s about to pass out. We need to know.”

Phil looked at them incomprehensively for a moment before his face lit up in understanding.

”Oh, he’s still going? I wondered if he would still be saying that.” The man elaborated, “Tommy found this nice-looking pebble on the shore the other day. He’s learning piglin now if you didn’t know, so he asked Techno how to say something like “cool rock”. Techno translated it pretty roughly, and they liked the way it sounded, so he and Tommy have been repeating it for the last two days.”

”Wait. So, you’re telling me that the growly sound we’ve been hearing this whole time meant “cool rock”?” Fundy whispered, swallowing a lump in his throat.

”I mean, it does sound pretty similar to “perish the weak”,” there was a sound of a body falling down onto the stone floor, and everyone turned around to see Quackity lying there, Niki near him and trying to get him to regain consciousness, “but no, I’m mostly sure the one you heard was “cool rock”.

Phil smirked as he looked around at everyone's pale faces, took the materials from the chest and got out of the mine.

Fundy rubbed his temples tiredly. He kept getting scared of Techno, just to find out every time that he was afraid of normal things that he just wasn't used to. It would take some time to learn about the piglin's habits, but the fox was sure it would be worth it. He glanced at his unconscious friend in equal measures concern and amusement. At least for them all to stop getting frightened half to death for no reason.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Got nothing much to say here this time, so thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed :D


	5. Chapter 5

Eret found it more difficult to meet up with her friends now than she did weeks ago, before everyone started working together to build and decorate their homeland. Eret's home was her castle and it still wasn't quite finished, so when she saw the people of dream amp perfecting and fixing up their houses, Eret decided it was time for her to finally come through with the ambitious project that was the castle.

Since the building was far from the main area where most were working, it was hard to find time off work to visit and help. Eret warned Sam that he would be absent until his task was complete and the creeper offered to provide some materials for the build which the man gratefully accepted. He still had a long way to go and was running out of materials, so Eret planned a trip to the Nether to get some more gold for the throne he wanted built in the main room.

Visiting the Nether was never a pleasant ordeal. It was hard to breathe in the hot and heavy air, the landscape was absolutely atrocious at best and extremely dangerous at worst, what with the steep cliffs, endless pools of lava and hauntingly screaming ghasts that threatened to push the unfortunate traveler over the edge with their attacks. Thankfully gold was quite common around there, so Eret expected their mining trip to be quick and relatively painless. They still remembered the discovery of the fortress with a wince, the small burn scars along their arm a constant reminder of the importance of wearing fireproof armor around blazes.   
Eret put a golden helmet on to protect herself from the unwanted hostility of wild piglins, packed some good, including a pumpkin pie Sam gave her the last time they saw each other, strapped a trusted sword to her belt and was all ready to move out. Instead of going all the way to the most used portal and disturbing the creeper that was working on making the entrance area safe and somewhat less painful to look at, Eret built one near the castle and stepped through it, hoping she won't get stuck in the wall or dive straight into a boiling lava sea upon arrival.

Gods seemed to hear the person's prayers as they stepped out in a spacious cave, gold ore littering the floor and walls of it. After quickly mining every block of the precious metal they could see, ret made an impromptu exit out of the now-empty cave and went out onto a large cliffside. Eret looked around for any potential dangers. There weren't any mobs to be seen except for a couple of piglins standing on the far end of the cliff and not paying any attention to the intruder, so they relaxed significantly and glanced over at the edge in front of them. As it turned out, Eret wasn't the only one to get here: a familiar piglin in full diamond armor was sitting there, leaning forward and rocking lightly back and forth. 

The person hadn't had a chance to talk to Technoblade properly, the only knowledge he had of the new family coming from Sam's stories. He wanted to approach the piglins and maybe have a conversation to get to know the teen better since, judging from Sam's words, he was nice, although quiet and withdrawn at times, which Eret could actually relate to in a way. But the conversation, apparently, wasn't meant to happen, as the piercing scream of a ghast sounded extremely close by, making the person retreat back into the cave closer to the portal to avoid getting spotted by the creature. Eret waited for Techno to stand up and hide or try to protect himself, but the boy didn't move and continued staring at the lava below, completely oblivious to the threat. 

The ghast's pale skin was already visible, and Eret was unsure as to what he could do. He was hesitant to call out to the piglin since it would immediately alert the mob to their presence and without a doubt make it target them. The person watched Techno with bated breath, his fists clenched subconsciously, searching for any sign that the teen noticed the danger, but no such luck. Time was running out, and so Eret decided to act. It was a child: no way he was leaving him out there, no matter how strong Sam described him to be.

She darted out and ran over to where the piglin was still rocking gently. The ghast was just over the corner, so Eret grabbed Techno by the shoulder and jerked him upright, freezing when a sharp edge of a sword touched the exposed line of her throat.

"There's a ghast right behind us, and we need to go before it burns us to a crisp," Eret whispered frantically, trying their hardest not to swallow and get their throat cut open because of one careless movement.

The piglin's eyes widened and he lowered the weapon, his ears rising up to catch any noise let out by the mob to make sure the person he just met wasn't lying to him. As if on cue, the ghast let out a soul-chilling shriek, indicating that he noticed the visitors and was getting ready for an attack. Eret dragged Techno to the ground with them, narrowly avoiding the fireball thrown their way. They both stumbled onto the hard netherrack, Eret's helmet falling off their head and rolling of the edge just to plummet down and melt in the hot liquid. Just as it happened, they saw angry wild piglins coming from their standing spot having noticed the goldless intruder and becoming hostile. 

"Well, damn," Eret whispered, exasperated, "can't have shit on Dream SMP."

He just wanted some gold for the house and ended up targeted by half the Nether's population, a piglin teenager Eret attempted to help sprawled over his chest.  
But Techno didn't spend the whole time lying there: having heard the next fireball coming their way, the piglin turned around, grabbed the sword he dropped in his surprise and reflected the blow, sending the projectile back to its sender and killing it with that one hit. After that the teen jumped to his feet and helped Eret up before running to the cave where Eret's portal was still standing and covered the entrance with cobblestone. 

Eret could hear blood pump loudly in her ears, her heart beating at an abnormally fast speed. She looked over at her unlucky companion and watched in concern as Techno held a bloodied hand before his eyes with a concentrated expression on his face. The fire must have reached him as he was countering the attack.

"Is your portal nearby? I'd take you through mine, but I don't think there's any potions at my castle."

"It should be behind that wall, about five minutes of walking," the piglin gestured with his injured hand while putting away his sword. His other hand started fidgeting with a necklace on his chest, and Techno looked more annoyed at the inconvenience than scared or worried.

Eret nodded and began mining through the wall wordlessly until he created a big enough hole for them and Technoblade to go through and into another similar cave with a portal the teen mentioned. 

"Thank you for helping me," the piglin muttered, his face turned away. Eret didn’t know Techno well enough but he had a feeling the teen was embarrassed because of the situation.

”Well, I couldn’t just leave you there to be shot, could I?” the person paused for a moment, playing his words over in his head. “That sounded a bit worse than I intended…”

The boy snorted as he came close to the portal and stood in front of it, clutching its edge. 

”I live with Tommy, I hear things way worse than that on a daily.”

”Do you want me to go with you?” Eret asked, unsure.

Techno shook his head confidently. “Nah, it’s fine. Wilbur should be home, he’ll deal with it.”

And he stepped through the purple mist without saying goodbye, leaving Eret alone in the cave, confused and still more than a little shaken. Suddenly the portal’s surface trembled, and a brand new golden helmet flew out of it and fell down at the person’s feet. They picked it up with a smile. Maybe getting those materials was still an option.

# # # # #

Techno was grating his teeth the entire walk back to the house, one of his ears flickering incessantly. He tried to calm himself and relax like Phil taught him to but nothing came of it, his back becoming even more frigid than it had been before. The wound wasn’t a big deal whatsoever, the burn nothing he hadn’t experienced, but the fact that a stranger had to literally drag him to the ground to save the teen from a much more significant injury left a bad taste in his mouth. Techno wouldn’t call himself a prideful piglin, he learned to accept help when needed (he wouldn’t admit that his family had to beat that skill into him, that was just too much for the boy), but dropping his guard like that because of a pretty and bright liquid was not his strongest moment. 

The piglin glanced at his injured hand one more time, calculating the approximate amount of time it would take for it to heal. Although he was still vulnerable to fire, especially when it was sent in his direction at an extremely high speed, Techno’s skin was tougher than that of people and some of the mobs as well and regenerated way quicker than theirs did, most of the times fast enough not to scar. Often the scars that actually stayed were because of the teen picking on the wounds and the skin around them, not allowing them to heal properly. Phil let him do whatever Techno found comfortable and helped the piglin express and process things better, but the wound picking was a definitive no. The boy asked Phil and his brothers as well to let him know if he started doing it again absent-mindedly, and the family never let him down. There were too many arguments in their household that ended with one of the boys pausing mid-shout just to calmly say “skin” when Techno started picking on it again, it was honestly getting ridiculous. But it worked, so who was he to complain.

He heard the music long before actually entering the house. One of the windows was open and Techno made a mental note to close it so at least some of the warmth was left. The notes were sharp and sometimes false, and the reason why became obvious as soon as the piglin crossed the doorstep.

Tommy was sitting on the floor and holding a guitar too big for him on his lap, Wilbur right behind him and helping the younger boy support the instrument. Will had been teaching Tommy to play since they finished building the house, having promised to do so while they were still on the road to cheer the kid up. The boy complained about lessons and bristles on his hands, but even Techno could see how excited he was for each study session. 

As soon as Tommy heard the door behind the piglin close, he cut the song he was playing short and looked up at his brother with shining eyes, waving his arms around.

”Techno, you’re back! I just learned a new song, it’s so fucking cool, you should listen to it right now!” the boy shouted before putting his fingers back on the strings and wiggling to get more comfortable.

Tommy didn’t get to play whatever he was going to, because Wilbur glanced up at Techno as well and took the guitar out of the younger boy’s hands to the kid’s obvious displeasure.

”Tommy, go get a healing potion. Hurry, child.” The teen ordered and Tommy let out a string of swears in return but complied after catching sight of the piglin’s wound.

“What happened?” Wilbur asked, patting the floor next to him and waiting for Techno to sit down, which he did after watching Tommy sprint and slip while turning the corner, almost falling on his face.

”Noticed a ghast’s fireball too late, nothing big.” Techno replied as his brother took his hand in his to inspect it.

Wilbur looked up, confused. “The man, the legend, the Blade? Notice a threat too late? Am I dreaming?”

Techno scoffed and explained, “I may or may not have zoned out and didn’t hear it scream.”

The teen raised his eyebrows knowingly, and the piglin felt a strong urge to punch him in the face for no apparent reason. “And were you watching something by any chance? Like lava, for example? Like the one we have in a pool right next to our house?”

“I can neither confirm nor deny that statement.”

Tommy ran back into the room holding a small vial full of pink shiny liquid. Wilbur took it from the boy without looking and took the cork out, pouring the liquid onto the wound carefully. He then took a clean handkerchief out of his breast pocket and wrapped Techno’s hand with it, making sure it’s secure before ruffling Techno’s hair.

At that moment the door opened again and Tommy turned in its direction.

”Dad! Techno got hurt again!”

Techno slapped his forehead and hissed in pain as he did it with a wounded hand. Phil definitely wasn’t going to be pleased…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> People saying they happy stim because of my work gives me years of life. Also makes me happy stim as well, but immortality is also there.
> 
> I'm shit at geography so I've no idea how far everything on the server is so if anything's wrong just.... assume it's cause it's in an au. Thank you.
> 
> The response to this has been so nice, I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter!!


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not sure if this needs a warning, but the character experiences sensory overload in this chapter. You can skip it if you stop reading at "What a day..!" and continue from the last paragraph above the cut (# # #). Tell me if the warning needs to be altered/the line moved.

Quackity had never been a coward. He didn’t hesitate to call out people for their crap, he was fast to make friends and enemies alike, so the things he felt when seeing Technoblade came as a surprise mainly to the boy himself. He couldn’t quite understand and read him, but that wasn’t the main problem – Quackity didn’t understand many things and it didn’t stop him before. There was also the feeling of something familiar, but long forgotten – the cautiousness of prey before a hunter. But those reasons were vague and could be beatable. The thing was… Quackity was shy. For what seemed like the first time of his life.

He didn’t envy people that could fight well, although it was a nice skill to have, in his opinion. His weapon of choice had always been his voice and wit. The boy knew he could hold the attention of the room and change the atmosphere with his slightly overly mature jokes, and he used it to his advantage. But he felt like Techno was just too serious for that kind of pastime, and sometimes, just sometimes, Quackity felt like he had nothing else to attract the piglin’s attention. He managed to get quite close to the teen’s brother Tommy, even though the boy was younger than Quackity, with whom he shared a similar sense of humor, and those were familiar grounds. It was nice hanging out together and scaring others with their brassiness. But then Techno showed up and Quackity kind of… froze up, unsure how to say hi or what to say, scared both of the tusks and the sword the piglin had and of saying something wrong. Tommy jumped up to the teen instantly and it felt unbearably strange to feel jealous of someone else’s confidence. 

That was exactly why Quackity snapped one day and decided enough was enough. If he wanted the piglin to be his friend, the boy was going to act on his wish instead of just standing around. So he caught Tommy and asked the other boy to pass Techno a message he wrote for him: an invitation to a “play date” of sorts. Tommy immediately proceeded to open the envelope, scan the letter and declare,

“He’s gonna hate it so much… I’m in!”

And so now Quackity was waiting at a picnic table Sam helped him set up, Techno’s favorite (according to Tommy) golden carrots cut and put on plates next to cooked steak, a beautiful cake in the middle and a little decorative candle lighting up an already bright space. The boy's fingers were covered in band-aids from his awkward attempts at cooking and his wings were trembling nervously. He usually kept them hidden since they were too small and weak to actually lift him in the air, but today he had to let them out because the only good suit he owned had two holes cut out in its back specifically for his wings. He wasn’t very proud of his yellow duck wings: he tried to learn to fly with them for the longest time, falling and injuring himself time and time again, so mostly he was just plain embarrassed to show them. That was way before Techno and his family came to the lands of the SMP, so the boy felt confident enough to sacrifice his habit for just one dinner. Maybe they could even laugh at them together – the piglin’s dad had a pair of gigantic and probably functional wings, so there was a lot to compare.

Probably not though, Quackity decided after a moment of thought. Techno didn’t seem to appreciate his jokes that much, so it probably was better to just fold the wings and make them smaller. The boy wanted the piglin to think of him as cool, and a stupid pair of duckling’s wings wasn’t going to help with that.

Finally, after a long wait, Quackity saw Techno coming up the road in his direction. The teen wasn’t wearing any armour, which was odd. He still had a sheathed sword on him, the sight of which made the boy gulp nervously. But instead of his usual protective outfit, the piglin was wearing a nice white shirt with a thick red and a long red cape, similar to the one Quackity saw on Eret. They were a king though, so the boy didn’t know if the capes were quite the same.

Techno came up to the table and sat down with a quietly mumbled “hallo”, his eyes fixed on the plate in front of him. Quackity shook his head in an attempt to get rid of any doubts and smiled brightly, even though he knew the other boy couldn’t see it.

”Hello, Technoblade… Techno? Can I… can I call you Techno?”

”Sure.” the teen replied indifferently, putting the first piece of carrot in his mouth with a silver fork. 

The boy counted the agreement as his first win and put a piece of meat in his mouth: all that worrying made him really hungry. At first the pair was silent, both eating meals from their respective plates and not really paying attention to each other. At least, that seemed to be that way from an outsider’s point of view, as Quackity was restless and tried to come up with something to talk about. Techno didn’t seem to have such problems – he was cutting his piece of steak in smaller pieces with one hand while the other was, as usual, touching the chain of his golden necklace. The other boy felt a lightbulb flash above his head, and he asked eagerly:  
”Your jewelry looks sick! I know Niki gave you the chain, but what about the earrings?”

The piglin’s head snapped up and he looked at Quackity for a moment before his gaze moved slightly to the side and stopped somewhere above the other boy’s shoulder. One of his ears started twitching, and Quackity could see the teen’s hands shake weakly. He wondered if he said something wrong which wasn’t that unlikely, judging by his complete lack of brain-to-mouth filter in most cases, but this time the alarm turned out to be false. 

Quackity had never heard Technoblade talk so much, apart from that one time in the mines. But that was just one word in piglin, repeated over and over, and this? This was a full-blown story about the nature of the earrings that derailed somewhere in the beginning and didn’t seem to be getting on track any time soon. It was Wilbur’s and Tommy’s present on his birthday, which probably wasn’t actually his birthday, but Wilbur decided it was just so he could call Techno his twin as a joke, and the piglin expressed his dislike at the fact, but he let the other teen say it because a couple of years ago Wil climbed a tree and refused to come down until Techno called him his twin at least once. Phil had to beg the teen to do it, which reminded Techno of the time Tommy found a raccoon in the garbage can in one of the villages they visited, and the man had to blackmail the boy with sweets for him to let the poor animal out of his grasp. In the same village Wilbur bought the guitar that he still played, and did Quackity hear him play? 

The boy replied that he didn’t but would love to, since he was also pretty good with an instrument, and the conversation continued in the direction of their favorite music, which for Techno turned out to be mostly the songs Wilbur wrote and sang himself. Quackity declared that he was going to broaden the piglin’s horizons in regards to music and the teen agreed to his delight. The original theme of the conversation was soon forgotten but none of the participants really mind, at least that’s what the boy hoped, because he was actually having fun! Quackity was completely in his element as he sang motifs of the songs he heard before and liked, Techno listening attentively and flapping his hands with the melody. 

Eventually they got the fruit cake, not stopping to cut it but having to pause talking to chew. It was way nicer than Quackity expected, and Techno looked more relaxed than he had after just joining the boy at the table. Wings on Quackity’s back were flapping in the suddenly strong wind, and he noticed that the sky was darker than it was supposed to be at this time of day. Of course, they spent at least two hours if Quackity could say so himself, but they agreed to meet at 3 and so the sunset wasn’t meant to happen yet. The boy looked away from his plate and up to the sky, his eyebrows furrowing slightly as he saw the dark rain clouds eating up the blue color at an incredibly fast speed. If Techno had noticed the change of the weather, he hadn’t said anything. But Quackity sure didn’t and started contemplating if they should pack and leave before the first drops of rain started falling. 

But the boy highly overestimated the time it would take for the pour to start: as soon as he decided to tell the piglin about his concerns and offer to call it a day, the sky opened and water started flying down, a warm waterfall of rain making everything around look misty and out of focus. The sound was so loud Quackity almost couldn’t hear his own voice when he yelled at his companion to grab the plates and run. He was busy with his own plate and putting the remains of the soaked through cake into the basket, so when he straightened up and saw that Techno was still sitting at the table the boy was surprised and frantic. The plate and the utensils in front of him were left untouched. The rain was impossibly getting stronger, whipping the skin painfully. 

”I’m all done, let’s go! Leave the plate, we can return for it later.” Quackity said as loud as he could and watched in confusion as the piglin twitched.

He hadn’t had the time to think about it for too long because of the sudden thunder and the first lightning striking a tree in the distance, setting it on fire instantly. 

”Oh shit, this is bad…” the boy exclaimed and tugged on Technoblade’s sleeve, which got the teen to finally get up and move. 

The pair ran to the closest place Quackity could see that would keep them safe for the time being and let them dry out: the mines. He got down the ladder and waited for Techno to follow before shutting the trapdoor. Another, much louder peal of thunder sounded right above the mine they hid in, and Quackity laughed hysterically at the position he managed to find himself in: soaking wet, holding a picnic basket, stuck in the mines with Technoblade himself. What a day..!

He turned to look at his partner in misfortune and his laughter died in his throat. Techno didn’t look like he was amused, relieved or, at the very least, annoyed. He looked… lost and shaken, his frame trembling with force, and the high heels of his boots clattered loudly against the stone as the piglin kicked and jerked both his legs one after the other. He was whining quietly and Quackity had to listen hard to hear it, but the sound was raw and deep, yet not at all threatening. 

”Techno… Wha-what’s wrong? Did something happen there?” the boy lowered himself to the ground and leaned on the floor with his knees, his hands in front of them supporting and balancing his weight. “Are you hurt?” 

For what felt like hours Techno continued to shake and Quackity was growing more worried with each passing second, but eventually the piglin shook his head from side to side, and some of the weight lifted from the other boy’s shoulders: he was shit at giving first aid. But that didn’t mean the problem was solved, and he still didn’t know the reason for the teen’s behavior.

”Can I touch you?” he asked, and this time Techno reacted immediately, his head shaking wildly and his whines becoming louder and more hectic.

Quackity took a deep breath and moved slightly farther away from the boy and raised his hands in the air.

“It’s okay, I won’t, I…” he swallowed and took a deep breath. “Was something wrong with the food? Maybe you have allergies..?”

Quakcity really should’ve thought about this earlier and was now scared he might have poisoned the piglin by accident, but the teen once again shook his head in denial. 

”Okay, alright, and… what else, what,” the boy muttered to himself, trying to find the explanation in an attempt to help. At that moment the rain poured with newfound force and he heard more thunder, the sound of which distracting him from his train of thought. But Quackity wasn’t the only one distressed by the noise, and Techno seemed to have it worse: he clasped his hands over his ears in an attempt to keep it out.

”Is it the-the rain? The thunder?”

This time the boy seemed to hit right on the mark, as the piglin finally nodded: evidently, closing his ears didn’t have that much of an effect. Quckity was glad to finally have at least some semblance of a reason, although he didn’t know what about the rain was so damaging to the other boy. Maybe it had something to do with his piglin nature? He was hot all over and he felt his wings open and rise, shaking with nerves. The boy’s wings became uncontrollable when he was distressed, probably the instincts taking over and preparing his body to fly from the danger even though Quackity knew perfectly well he couldn’t fly yet. But the wings were the last thing on the boy’s mind right now.

”Can I do something? To help?”

Techno looked up at him from under his locks that were wet and disheveled, obscuring his vision, and his gaze seemed to lock onto something behind Quackity. 

The boy turned around and saw nothing but walls with chests next to it which he knew were full of pickaxes and additional materials. He turned back around to ask if the piglin noticed something and saw the boy reaching one of his hands out towards him. Quackity fell back from the teen in surprise and Techno jerked his hand back, clutching it to his chest and playing with the chain on his neck almost aggressively. The old fear that Quackity hadn’t felt the entire evening returned, all of the boy’s doubts coming back to the surface. Did he do something wrong and now Technoblade was going to murder him? The boy knew his fears were unreasonable, but he couldn’t stop his knees from trembling and his wings from moving in front of him protectively. He tried to wrangle them back, but then he noticed Techno pointing his finger at them. 

And then it clicked: Quackity remembered the piglin holding onto his father’s wings when they were standing close, as if the feel of the feathers was comforting to the teen. An idea appeared in the boy’s mind, and he sat down on the floor, his back turned to Techno. To say he was scared was to say nothing: he was exposed to one of the creatures he was actually scared of, but he thought this is the exact moment when these fears were either going to come true or be shown to have been completely unwarranted. No in-between.

”You can… you can touch them. If you wanna. You were looking at them, right?”

Techno still wasn’t talking and Quackity couldn’t see him from his position, but talking gave him a sense of control he was rapidly losing. And then he felt a soft, hesitant touch on his wings. The boy nodded, he wasn’t quite sure why, but the piglin seemed to understand it better, as he gripped the feathers tighter, but not tight enough to hurt: probably his experience with Phil helping him remember to control his strength. 

After a while Quackity managed to relax. It kind of felt like a massage, and was actually extremely nice – his wings were usually folded or hidden, so having them be groomed was heavenly. After about ten minutes of sitting and babbling about nothing and everything at once, the boy turned around to see Techno who was now shaking way less, all his attention concentrated on the duck wings he was carefully “combing” through. After another ten minutes Quackity’s speech was starting to grow quieter and more jumbled, the sleepless night before taking its toll on him. The sound of the now less loud rain lulled him to sleep and the grooming of his wings turned him into goo, and it was taking a lot of effort for the boy not to pass out on the spot.

And sometime between the 30th and 35th minute Quackity allowed himself to close his eyes just for a moment since they were getting irritated, and, apparently, he didn’t open them again till the rain ended and Techno was nowhere to be found. 

# # # # #

Techno was gone, lost, and his skin felt like it was burning. He hated when it happened, but there was no way of predicting when it was going to happen, and the only thing he could do was avoid the things he had noticed felt like “too much”. Those things were different – the beat of the drums, that one particular type of fabric he still didn’t know the name of and, most noticeably, pouring rains. Usually he waited out the rains inside the house under Phil’s wing, all his family there. Sometimes, when he felt okay, he told his brothers stories he read somewhere or the ones he made up himself, Wilbur and Tommy claiming that the last ones were their favorite. When he felt worse, Wil sang songs quietly until the rain was done. The piglin loved times like that, even though he felt horrible and disoriented for some time afterwards. 

And now his family wasn’t here, and he was in a mine, and the thunder was rumbling above his head. The piglin’s head was a huge mess of thoughts that started and ended nowhere, running past at light speed and destroying what semblance of calm he’d managed to achieve. So the fact that Quackity had wings was a very pleasant surprise, and having feathers, although not the close and familiar ones, under his palms helped immensely. The boy’s wings were small and bright yellow, golden even, and Techno managed to distract himself with the shine and feel of them after a while, melting into the comfort object and whining to block the pressing noise of the rain outside. The teen had no idea of the workings of time, and in his vulnerable state he was even worse at counting hypothetical “minutes”. The whole ordeal seemed to have lasted hours, time moving like honey dripping down a tree branch, and Techno only noticed that something changed when Quackity fell over on his side and started snoring, startling the piglin. At that moment he noticed the most important thing: the rain had stopped, and the thunder could no longer be heard. Breathing out a sigh of relief, Techno got up from the floor with a quiet groan. His legs were still shaky and there was mist among his thoughts that he couldn’t quite dispel. He needed to go home.

He got up the ladder, his breathing shallow and fast the entire time, and glanced down at the figure of the sleeping boy just before lifting the trapdoor. He would thank him later, the piglin decided, for now resorting to nodding gratefully before exiting the mines. 

The road back was blurry and Techno for the life of him couldn’t remember how he got back, but the most important thing was that he was here, standing before the door to the building he learned to call “home”. He entered and saw a pretty ordinary picture inside: papers scattered all over the floor, Wilbur’s guitar lying in the center of the room, Tommy’s face tied with a scarf which he struggled and failed to get off, and Phil lying on the couch with a small paperback book, eating an apple and completely ignoring his screaming younger son. Complete chaos, just as it should be. Suddenly Techno heard Wil’s voice from behind himself yelling,

”Where’s the paper, you gremlin child? Where’d you hide it?”

“A cnt tak, u patrd.” the boy mumbled furiously.

”I don’t care if you can’t talk, and stop calling me that. The only bastard around here is you.” At that moment Wilbur noticed Techno standing in the doorway, and his angry expression changed to that of excitement and mischief. “Techno, you’re back from your meeting with Quackity! Do you need help hiding a body? Cause I know someone who can do free manual labor.” 

He pointed at Tommy who just started humming angrier. The piglin didn’t pay him any attention and raised his hand, open palm facing the other teen. His eyebrows furrowed slightly, but then his face lit up in understanding.

”The rain clouds… they went over your picnic spot?”

Techno nodded and walked inside the room, hearing Wilbur close the door behind them. Phil looked up at the piglin and smiled warmly, concent written all over his face. The man was always good at giving Techno space, and now he did the same, shaking his head at the restless and clearly concerned Wilbur. 

”Do you want to be alone right now?” 

Techno nodded and smiled to show that he was feeling alright, and Phil didn’t push.

”Okay. I’ll make one of those fuckers bring you dinner later, since it looks like they have nothing better to do then destroy our new house.” the man said pointedly, provoking a new mumbled tirade from the youngest boy. 

As Techno was walking up the stairs, he saw Phil throw his half-eaten apple in the general direction of the trash bin and the fruit landing right on top Tommy’s head. 

Phil covered his mouth with his hand, his eyes shifting, and the piglin chuckled soundlessly. No wonder the kids turned out the way they did with a father like theirs. 

Techno thought it was a good thing though, and he didn’t care what people said in the villages the family was coming through. It was theirs, and that was enough.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That took me 3 days of work and two weeks of procrastination..... poggers. I'll try write mostly sbi next chapter cause I want comfort. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter!! The support makes me feel amazing so consider dropping kudos and comments, that would mean the world to me. (It just shows that people enjoy my work and that is unbelievable, lmao).  
> Have a nice day<3

**Author's Note:**

> I need to stop projecting on CC's.... Ahem. I'll try to keep people in character with slight alterations due to their ages and experiences. There might be some OOC moments, but I'll try to keep them to a minimum.
> 
> English isn't my first language, so there may be stupid grammar mistakes. 
> 
> If you want to come and say hi, you can find me on tumblr - my acc is t0tallyspine :) Thank you for reading!!


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